Friday, March 31, 2017

English multi-media artist Luke Jerram has created a jaw-dropping sculpture that is currently on tour:

"Museum of the Moon is a new touring artwork by UK artist Luke Jerram.

Measuring seven metres in diameter, the moon features 120dpi detailed NASA imagery of the lunar surface. At an approximate scale of 1:500,000, each centimetre of the internally lit spherical sculpture represents 5km of the moon’s surface*.

Over its lifetime, the Museum of the Moon will be presented in a number of different ways both indoors and outdoors, so altering the experience and interpretation of the artwork. As it travels from place to place, it will gather new musical compositions and an ongoing collection of personal responses, stories and mythologies, as well as highlighting the latest moon science.

The installation is a fusion of lunar imagery, moonlight and surround sound composition created by BAFTA and Ivor Novello award winning composer Dan Jones. Each venue also programmes their own series lunar inspired events beneath the moon.

From the beginning of human history, the moon has acted as a ‘cultural mirror’ to our beliefs, understanding and ways of seeing. Over the centuries, the moon has been interpreted as a god and as a planet. It has been used as a timekeeper, calendar and to aid nighttime navigation. Throughout history the moon has inspired artists, poets, scientists, writers and musicians the world over. The ethereal blue light cast by a full moon, the delicate crescent following the setting sun, or the mysterious dark side of the moon has evoked passion and exploration. Different cultures around the world have their own historical, cultural, scientific and religious relationships to the moon.

Over the coming years Museum of the Moon will be presented in art exhibitions, science, music and light festivals around the world. As the artwork tours, new audio compositions will be created and performed by a range of established composers and musicians, so adding to the Museum of the Moon collection.

Thursday, March 30, 2017

Hong Kong-based artist Simon Birch has opened a massive art gallery-installation space in Los Angeles called The 14th Factory in collaboration with a host of other artists.

"The 14th Factory is a monumental, multiple-media art installation that will transform an empty industrial warehouse near downtown Los Angeles into a mythic universe created collaboratively through video, installation, sculpture, sound, paintings, and live performance. The 14th Factory weaves together elements of popular culture–science fiction, punk music, graphic novels, and film–with critical re-examinations of social and historical narratives, especially interconnections between East and West. Conceived by Hong Kong-based British artist Simon Birch, the vision of The 14th Factory is to create a new, independent paradigm for socially-engaged art, a kind of guerilla action where art occupies and re-energizes underutilized or even derelict urban spaces and gifts them back to the community in the form of a transformative experience.

Throughout its run, the project will feature collaborative works by a global community of interdisciplinary artists representing Greater China, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. Entering The 14th Factory, the visitor becomes a central player in a contemporary hero’s journey, leaving the ordinary world behind and setting out on a voyage of adventure and, ultimately, of transformation. Along the way, the journeyer gathers allies, encounters obstacles and battles adversaries, until reaching the challenge and the ultimate prize: A gift that can be passed on to all."

Birch collaborated with Paul Kember of KPlusK, an architectural firm in Hong Kong to create The Barmecide Feast, an immersive replica of the last set seen in Kubrick's masterpiece "2001: A Space Odyssey," complete with underlit floor. Coincidentally, Kember's uncle and great-uncle both worked on the original Kubrick set!

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Artist Paul Schulenburg paints fishermen and dock laborers from a voyeuristic vantage point. He celebrates not only the dignity of the intense labor required for the fishing industry, but also the beauty of the male form at work and at rest in these simple but majestic homoerotic images.

Top to bottom: A Tenuous Line; Back To The Harbor; By The Pier; Days End; Fisherman In The Shadows; Fresh Ice; Pensive Fisherman; Ready The Line; Shoveling Ice; Wait For The Next Boat

Sunday, March 26, 2017

New York-based design firm Dror has designed an intriguing central park for the city of Istanbul

"Existing green spaces in Istanbul are few and far between. When considering the approach for a park located six miles north of the city center, we asked ourselves: how do we draw strangers-to-nature to this destination?

We set out to create a park that dissolves the anxiety and fear that often accompanies an unfamiliar environment through a network of conditions that fosters unconditional love. We imagined the most profound experience delivered through the lightest touch; an effort that preserves the lush forest and leaves every tree in place, as mandated by the city.

Our masterplan for Parkorman is a web of possibilities; a living system of places for visitors to explore. Instead of dictating one’s path through the park, visitors write their own experience. Numerous non-linear pathways, like calligraphy, weave through the existing woodland, surprising people with unexpected discoveries along their journey.

Five main zones, each with their own distinct qualities, are designed to provoke emotion. The Plaza, at the entrance of the park, presents nature as a place for collective experience and gathering. Interaction and play are encouraged through a series of interventions spread throughout: swings and hammocks sway above the bed of the forest (The Loop); giant ball pits, inspired by Turkish spice markets, invite people to dive in (The Pool); a footpath floats above the ground and twists around tree trunks into giant loops with trampolines at the center (The Chords). The Grove, a maze-like trail pollinated with sculptures that relate to the landscape, spurs exploration, while The Fountain of Clarity, a cube-shaped frame that sends water down all four sides and opens via hydraulic piston to envelop oncomers, prompts reflection.

Through the sum of these experiences, a more intimate relationship between landscape and being is forged, and nature is reintegrated into the city’s harsh urban lifestyle."

Saturday, March 25, 2017

Face and body painter Emma Allen used her lovely skills to make a fantastic short film that examines the evolution of our species.

"An animated self-portrait exploring the line of human evolution and a projection of a possible future.As our evolution turns from biological to technological, are we now the bridge between the born and the made.I painted this stop frame animation on myself using face paint, a mirror and a camera."

Friday, March 24, 2017

French artist François Bard is clearly influenced by cinema and photography. There is a "Nouveau Noir" film-still quality to many of his images, giving the viewer the urge to see what came before and what could possibly come after...

About Me

About "Oh, By The Way"

"Oh, By The Way" is my digital scrap book of things I like, things I would share with a close friend and say: “Oh, by the way, do you know of this artist/ clothing or interior designer/ model/ singer/ actor/ gorgeous man… or, have you seen this video/ photo/ film... or heard (or do you remember) this song/ band... or, read this book/ poem/ inspiring quote... or, visited this place/ restaurant/ famous building... or, have you heard of this amazing new scientific discovery?”

I am dedicated to posting the positive, the fascinating, the beautiful, the interesting, the moving, and the inspiring and uplifting. Sometimes I post cultural as well as personal observations, milestones, and remembrances. And just like life, all of these things may often have a bit of melancholy or even sadness in them, which is what makes our time here so lovely and bittersweet and precious.

Some of the photos, art, poetry, and prose are my own original work, credited with my initials, JEF. When it isn't, I always try to post links to the original source material, but often I find photos on the web that are not linked or other material that is not sourced. In these instances, I post them without malice since it is assumed that such things, by being globally posted on something as uncontrollable as the internet to begin with, are in the public domain. If you identify the source of an image that is not linked, please politely let me know (without accusing me of theft) and I will be happy to provide a link.

I hope to inspire and entertain my readers with things that inspire and entertain ME. There is a startling amount of beauty and creativity in the world and it enriches us all to participate in it.

All-time Favorite Films

2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick)

After Hours (Hysterical, hair-raising ride through NYC at night)

Amelie

American Beauty (Alan Ball)

Baraka (Stunning, transcending—the "spiritus mundi" on film)

Belle et Bete (Cocteau)

Big Sleep, The (The epitome of film noir)

Bringing Up Baby (Hepburn & Grant—the epitome of screwball comedy)

Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover, The (Greenaway)

Crash (Cronenberg—DIFFICULT subject, not for everyone)

Don’t Look Now (Nicolas Roeg—ultimate modern gothic horror)

Drowning By Numbers (Greenaway)

Easy Rider

Edward II (Derek Jarman)

Erendira (From magic realist Marquez’ brilliant short story)

Eyes Wide Shut (Kubrick's last film)

Fearless (Jeff Bridges—life and death)

Funny Bones (Leslie Caron, Jerry Lewis, and the brilliant Lee Evans)

Holiday (Hepburn & Grant)

Howard’s End (The ultimate statement of the unfairness of class systems)